Stock Repurchase Program Declared by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 1st, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $100.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the iPhone maker to repurchase up to 3.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Apple Stock Performance

Apple stock opened at $205.35 on Friday. Apple has a 12-month low of $169.21 and a 12-month high of $260.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The company has a market capitalization of $3.08 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.26. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $212.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $228.61.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The iPhone maker reported $1.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.03. Apple had a return on equity of 160.83% and a net margin of 24.30%. The business had revenue of $95.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.53 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Apple will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apple Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is a boost from Apple’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 12th. Apple’s dividend payout ratio is 15.87%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AAPL. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Apple from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Scotiabank lowered Apple to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Apple in a report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Apple from $259.00 to $256.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Apple from $290.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.17.

Insider Transactions at Apple

In other Apple news, CEO Timothy D. Cook sold 108,136 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.65, for a total transaction of $24,184,616.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3,280,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $733,637,976.75. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Katherine L. Adams sold 38,822 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.67, for a total transaction of $8,683,316.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 179,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,072,269.86. The trade was a 17.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 187,021 shares of company stock valued at $41,760,140. 0.06% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Apple

Apple Inc designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables, and accessories worldwide. The company offers iPhone, a line of smartphones; Mac, a line of personal computers; iPad, a line of multi-purpose tablets; and wearables, home, and accessories comprising AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, and HomePod.